Many devices are nowadays equipped with video displaying capabilities, starting with personal computers and laptops, and including digital personal assistants, cellular phones, digital tablets and the like. Movies, and video in general, are selected from menus that show digital information regarding them. However, current UIs only offer static images and title to represent the different movies or other objects. Prior art user interfaces only reveal a single frame from the movie, which is generated by the device (and in some instances can be selected by the user), and this presents a problem because the information that can be retrieved from a single frame is limited and insufficient. For example, commercial movies always start with a studio logo and hence a number of movies can have the same thumb. Another example is if the thumb is chosen from a time in which there is no significant information in the picture. In such cases, it is likely that the user will look for further sources of information before choosing his favorite movie, or will start playing the specific movie and watch part of in order to learn more about it. This process naturally takes time and is inefficient.
It is therefore clear that it would be highly desirable to provide means to display dynamic information for the various videos shown in a selection menu. It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved user interface that simultaneously displays enhanced information, in a dynamic way, regarding a plurality of videos available in a selection menu.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a user interface in which a plurality of videos can be displayed as they are played simultaneously.
It is yet another purpose of invention to provide a method for displaying a plurality of different videos that are simultaneously played in a selection menu and to enable selecting therefrom the one that the user wishes to play in an enlarged or full-screen.
It is still a further object of the invention to provide a method for simultaneously displaying a plurality of segments playing from the same video and to enable selecting therefrom the segment that the user wishes to play in an enlarged or full-screen.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.